Five Big Macs Still Alive in Championships

Of the six Canon-McMillan wrestlers who took to the mats at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pa. on Thursday, five still remain in contention for a Class AAA PIAA state championship.

Colton Shorts (103 pounds), Connor Schram (112), Solomon Chishko (130), Nick Catalano (145) and Cody Klempay (285) all won their opening round matches to stay alive in the championship bracket. While Canon-McMillan’s Dario Dobbin (135) will have to wrestle his way through the consolation bracket for a chance to place after dropping his first round match.

“It was a big opening round,” Big Macs coach Chris Mary said by telephone. “We have to score more points tomorrow. We have to be more aggressive. Some kids might have had opening round jitters. But tomorrow is a new day.”

Out of those who won, Catalano (45-1) had the closest match, a 3-2 decision over Council Rock South’s Connor Moore (31-11).

“Catalano had a tough match,” Mary said. “[Moore] got two escapes, but Nick just hung in there.”

Shorts (47-1) turned in the dominant match of the day for the Big Macs, picking up an 11-0 major decision over Pennsbury’s Jason Bing (41-10). And Schram (45-2) continued his march for a second- straight state title with an 8-4 decision over Governor Mifflin’s Kenny Arentz (37-8).

In other action, Chishko (43-4) picked up a 5-0 decision over Pleasant Valley’s Michael Dahlstrom (41-6), and Klempay stayed undefeated by taking a 5-1 decision against Garnet Valley’s Brendan Walsh (41-3).

Dobbin (40-12), meanwhile, dropped his opening match 11-2 to Solanco’s Don Neff (41-2), before rebounding in the consolation bracket with a pin at 2:07 against DuBois’ Tom Sleigh (29-12).

Mary again reiterated his primary message of taking things one match at a time today, as the tournament moves into the quarterfinal rounds at 1 p.m. at the Giant Center.

“It’s the quarterfinals, so they’re all good matches,” Mary said. “We just have to open up and score, score, score.”